Mike1958

Many thanks to everyone for your comments. We have taken the plunge (not literally) and signed up our plumber who will fit two wall mouted WC's with an integrated rather than separate macerator. It is costing us quite a bit more but the benifit is not having to box the unit behind a wall. Regards, Mike www.peak-times.com  

Unfortunately to provide a WC in two bathrooms in our house we are going to have to bite the bullet and have an electric Saniflo type system installed. Can anyone please advise on: 1. What makes are available in France and their cost 2. Any experiences that you have had (either positive or negative) in using such a system. Regards, Mike www.peak-times.com  

Many thanks, My assumption was that the info would be at the Marie's office, and as of Monday there had not been the mandatory notification posted. I should also add that I have a right of preemption on the sale of the land which expires in September, this requires formal notification of an intended sale providing me with the option to buy if I wanted to. Regards, Mike  

I have a house with adjoining land (not owned by me) which I believe has planning permission for a residential property. Can anyone please advise which office I should go to to find out what permissions have been granted and whether there have been any restrictions imposed. (Dept 31 Luchon) Many thanks, Mike www.peak-times.com    

Greg, email sent to your private mail box. Regards, Mike

We have a open fire in our living room which when used results in smoke seeping into a third floor bedroom. My assumption is that having had the chimney swept something has broken away allowing smoke to creep through the wall and into the room. Our thoughts are that we will have to have some form of liner, has anyone else had this experience and if so what was done to cure the problem. Regards, Mike www.peak-times.com  

We have two ensuite bathrooms that unfortunately have a bidet but not a WC. I cannot find any central stack that our only other WC connects into. Therefore I have two questions: 1. Is my knowledge correct in that though the pipe sizes are different the actual waste goes into the same drain? 2. Apart from replacing with a saniflo type of WC are there any other options that I could explore? Many thanks in advance,   Regards, Mike  

As long as you have roaming enabled on your SIM you will be able to use the functionality. I use both a mobile office card in my laptop which connects over GPRS as well as a BlackBerry that I use all the time. As the previous post states you will need to check which tariff you are on to give you an idea of your data allowance and cost.   Regards, Mike

Many thanks for the useful information. Taking a full load scenario the type of oven we were interested would draw 6500w needing a 28A rated supply at 230v. I gather that the internal cable within the house is capable of taking a 30A supply so I now need to check with EDF what runs to the house and how much it will cost to uplift. Though talking it through with the head chef she seems to be giving up on the idea of a professional range with gas and electric and will now settle for two separate ovens and a large electric hob. More expensive to run but it would take an age to recover the cost of having gas plumber into the kitchen and the electric upgraded. These we will buy locally and should fit the supply that we have. Again many thanks for all the contributions and advice. Mike

Many thanks Paul, I probably wasn't clear enough about the supply that we have which is that we have both a 240 and 400v supply which i gather is mono and tri respectively. I have taken the 20A rating from the edf bill which I assumed was a maximum on a single phase. The technical spec for the cooker that we have our eye on states that it must be connected to a suitable double pole control until with a minimum rating of 30A (230/240v). Either way it sounds from your earlier response that this is probably not suitable. Regards, Mike      

Many thanks Miki, Your comments reinforced what I thought would be the case. We still have some time as we would like to be open for business for next Christmas in time for the start of the 2005/06 ski season. Before then we have a lot to do to ensure that we are fully compliant on all fronts, as well as solving the small problem of selling our UK house so that we can pack up work and move over permanently. Regards, Mike    

We currently have a triphase 12kw 20A supply, can anyone advise whether: It is totally unacceptable to install a cooker rated at 30A even if it is on its own feed from the fuse board.Is it possible to upgrade to a 30A supply I know the charges are higher based on the KW value, are they higher for a 30A supplyWe would like to install a professional range cooker (mix of town gas and electric) but have been struggling to find what we want apart from in the UK. Many thanks, Mike

We currently have a triphase 12kw 20A supply, can anyone advise whether: It is totally unacceptable to install a cooker rated at 30A even if it is on its own feed from the fuse board.Is it possible to upgrade to a 30A supply I know the charges are higher based on the KW value, are they higher for a 30A supplyWe would like to install a professional range cooker (mix of town gas and electric) but have been struggling to find what we want apart from in the UK. Many thanks, Mike

On a similar vain, can anyone advise whether there a licensing requirements where drinks are made available but without direct payment. i.e guests pay a rate for the accommodation and any meals and a limited free bar is available should they wish to use it. Regards,   Mike

Thanks Nick, I have already had the electricity looked into and discovered that not only do we have a fairly good (though some new some old) supply, we also have a three phase connection as well. I will still bear this in mind though when making the final selection. Regards,   Mike  

Many thanks Paul, I have been trying to get a definitive answer from manufacturers and so far have been told by both Baumatic and Hotpoint that their appliances are compatible, the only down side of course is the any warranty would not be carried over into France. Re EDF/GDF: I find it difficult enough trying to pay a bill as it seems their office is always closed though I will try and pop in and see them the next time that we are out.  

We have a house luckily supplied with town gas by EDF which at the moment is only being used to power our central heating. I am thinking however of bringing across a SS range style cooker from the UK which is both electric and gas (hob only) as I have been unable to find the one that we need locally. (Must be double oven). Can any member please advise whether there are any differences between the UK and French gas supply and whether or not a UK cooker will work OK.   Many thanks in advance,   Mike  

As someone who understands the drivers of market demand vs the price you pay, I was extremely amused to receive a devis in the post today from a plumber that I have come to know. Preferring to use local artisans, and build up a relationship that hopefully would be long term I am disappointed to say that as a result of my first real venture into having some work done in France I am beginning to wonder whether this is the right approach. I requested a price for a gas connection to be routed from my boiler room where i have a gas boiler, into my kitchen for a gas cooker. The boiler room and kitchen are adjoining with no more than a 3 metre run of piping required. I know that a new air brick will be needed to aid the ventilation and that purging and reconnecting the gas supply will be necessary. The quote for the work came to over 1000 euro's. Next steps - smile, take a deep breath and move on by looking for quotes from other local plumbers. This is the beginning of a challenging yet hopefully rewarding few months for us, where hopefully in the end we will find local tradesman that are both fair and trustworthy.

There are good connections into Toulouse and Pau for the Pyrenees, however does anyone know of any company that operates flights into Tarbes/Lourdes from the UK. Regards,   mIKE

I have just fitted two different sets of wall lights which have come from the UK, but undoubtedly have been manufactured in Europe. I had an electrician with me who checked everything out OK though you may wish to check the rating of the circuit you are wiring into. Our house has two differing types of wiring with the latter extension having spurs where both the live and neutral feeds are fused. It was also interesting to find out that we also have a 3 phase supply which had I not had checked could have had painful consequences.   Regards,   Mike

Can anyone please advise if there is a store in dept 31 (Toulouse area) or an on-line site that has a good selection of stainless steel range cookers that will work on town gas or gas/electricity. Many thanks, Mike  

Though probably a vain shot in the dark could anyone provide any useful advice as to how I can get around the following problem.   Having recently purchased our house we will need to add at least another two WC's into a house where there are no visible foul pipes to connect into. It seems that the existing pipework may run inside internal stone walls. This in itself is not the main issue as a new stack can be created and boxed in, however the dilemma is that though we are supposedly connected to main sewers I cannot locate either rodding or inspection points or even a channel where pipework may run to the main drains in the street. The house is the best part of a 100 years old but has had work done in that time therefore my questions are:   1. Can I realistically expect to find plans lodged anywhere that would show all groundwork's (drains etc) 2. Are there specialist tools or services that can locate drains without needing to dig up the grounds.   Any help given would be gratefully appreciated.   Regards,   Mike

I thought it worth a try to see if there any forum members looking to share a load for delivery to the St Gaudens area (Luchon) between now and Christmas. We live in the East Anglia/East Midlands area and have a number of large items (enough for a large van) that we would like to move out. This could either be a load share or business for anyone returning to the area with space to offer.   Regards, Mike

Chris, Many thanks indeed for your response, I will trawl through the threads over the next week or so to try and find more detail about the certificates/licenses to ensure that we have everything covered for when we hopefully open up next year.   Regards, Mike

I would be glad of any useful advice from existing B&B owners and forum members. We will be completing the purchase of our 5 bedroom house in the Haute Garonne next week with an aim of moving out permanently probably next summer. Our intention is to not to kill ourselves working all year round rather than focus on providing catered accommodation for skiers during the 12 - 14 week ski season and B&B  for probably 8 - 12 weeks during the summer. This will hopefully generate enough revenue to pay the bills and keep us fed and watered. Once we have the house the way that we would like it to be we will probably register with the Gites de France as either a Chambre d'Hotes or a Table d'Hotes (again unlikely until we have been in the house for a year). My key question is "Do we require any form of authority to operate" and if so where can this be obtained?   Many thanks   Mike